The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also correspond to disclosed embodiments.
Conventional large scale farms of machines or machine farms lack sufficient automated architecture that provides functionality to automate provisioning for use of each or any of the respective machines in the farm, including remote installation and upgrading of test applications, Java™ based applications, and the like, as well as general management and maintenance of machines within the farm. Further lacking in conventional mechanisms is functionality to easily run the respective applications hosted by such machines in an automated fashion, without requiring human intervention.
Improved mechanisms for automating deployment of applications to multiple machines, such as those operating within a machine farm or a datacenter, is therefore desirable. Solutions to the above mentioned problems and other benefits of Applicants' disclosed embodiments are described in additional detail below.